Houston Daily

This fall, the University of Houston recognized three projects with its Centennial Staff Innovation Award. The award honors staff members whose efforts lead to significant improvements across campus operations and services.

The first project was led by Daniel Chang, assistant provost for academic programs. Nominated by Cindy Mejia, executive director of student success strategies, Chang addressed the challenge of converting a paper- and email-based academic program proposal process into a digital system. The new system now standardizes documentation, reduces errors, and makes information more accessible. Chang said, “My vision was to create a more transparent, efficient and accessible process for academic program development — one that made it easier for faculty and staff to understand and navigate.” In addition to this improvement, Chang introduced the Academic Program Tracker, a real-time platform allowing stakeholders to monitor proposals throughout the approval process. Mejia commented on its impact: “The system supports better decision-making and strategic planning, helping UH continue to innovate and grow in alignment with its academic goals.”

The second award went to a team from the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine: Mirla Lopez Saldierna, David Garcia, and Rushil Daivala. Their project replaced an inefficient third-party vendor system with a custom Quickbase case management platform. This change eliminated about $100,000 in annual costs while streamlining data processes and improving reporting accuracy for community health programs at the college. Linda Civallero, executive director of community engagement at the college who nominated the team said: “The Quickbase project shows that the people involved in the day-to-day work have the most creative and practical solutions to problems. Involving others with specialized skills and resources to address the problem brought it to completion. We are always better together.”

The third winner was Deana Kreitz, executive director for web and digital strategy at UH. She led efforts under what is called the Unified Digital Experience Model after being nominated by Lisa Holdeman, vice president for marketing and communications. Kreitz’s leadership resulted in centralizing UH’s digital presence through migrating over 180 websites; deleting 13,000 outdated pages; archiving 18,000 assets; and reducing excess content by more than half—all steps taken toward creating an improved user experience online for students, staff, faculty members or visitors seeking information about UH programs or services online.

Kreitz stated: “This award is deeply meaningful because it recognizes the years of persistent, often unseen work that brought our Unified Digital Experience Model to life — the teams and people who built it, the leaders who believed in it, and the future teammates who will carry it forward.” She continued: “Our vision has always been to create one seamless, accessible and user-centered experience for everyone who visits the University of Houston online — something few public universities have achieved at this scale.” Holdeman added praise for Kreitz’s contribution: “Deana’s vision and leadership have transformed how the University communicates online,” she said.“Her innovative approach to unifying our digital presence not only improves efficiency and accessibility but it also ensures UH’s brand shines consistently across every website.”

Additional details on nominating candidates for future Centennial Innovation Awards are available from university channels.